The Online Application Debate

“Are on-line application forms really delivering the best graduates for businesses or just making the HR department’s life easier?”

On-line application forms have been the new thing for graduate recruitment for a few years now – but are they actually helping companies get the best graduates?

Increasing volumes of applications from the growing number of annual graduates (310,000 in 2004) and the pressure on reducing costs have meant that employers have had to look at ways to manage the scale of their graduate recruitment.

With 57% of employers experiencing difficultly and 30% failing to fill all their graduate vacancies – on line application forms may have made life easier for the recruiter but have they helped employers win the war for the best graduate talent?

There are a number of issues employers need to consider:

• You will struggle to find a graduate who likes on line application forms, so that will put them off recruiting
• Graduates want to speak with a real person not feel like a number and with the growing automation across all areas of our lives this feeling will only grow. Do on line application forms say “we are a people business?” Are they the giving the right impression of the business to graduates?
• How customer friendly are on-line application forms?
• On line application forms are hugely time consuming so this will mean that graduates
• May start them and not go back to them.
• May only fill in a few, which is fine if you are one of the few, but what if you are not?
• Not even bother to start as it appears to bigger task

So with these added pressures on graduates who are focusing their time, especially in their final year, in getting a decent degree these applications may never get done. Current evidence is also clear, with 60% of finalists making no applications until after their finals – are these on line application forms adding to this figure?